Besfren Taro and matcha soft serve: I stumbled upon this tiny pastry shop on my way to Penn Station from KTown and was impressed with the quality of their soft serve. Served in a large but slightly pricy cup (at $5.50), the purple and green ice cream swirl is well balanced and perfectly smooth. The creamy, slightly vegetal flavor of taro works surprisingly well with bitter matcha. My only quibble is that the way the soft serve was swirled gave it a hollow center, so I think a third of the cup I received was just an air pock... (read more)3.5/5.0

Lays Nori seaweed potato chips: One of my favorite things is when friends gift me snacks to review (thanks Anjali!). These Lays potato chips are from Thailand and are seaweed flavored, not sushi (which was my first guess upon seeing sushi rolls on the packaging). The texture and consistency is as you would expect (thin and crispy, as much oil as it is potato), and the chips have green nori flecks that make them look like sour cream and onion. It's as sweet as it is savory, which I didn't expect but also seems to be the cas... (read more)3.0/5.0

Epsa Blood orange soda: This Greek soda comes in a sturdy glass bottle textured like Orangina's and marked with a distinct diamond emblem reminiscent of an astrological symbol. The soda is pretty sweet, but it's better balanced than Sunkist or Fanta and is flavored with black carrot juice. You could tell it's orange soda right away, yet the blood orange juice is distinctive and worthwhile. Purchased from Saloniki in Boston. 3.5/5.0

Mah Ze Dahr Gingersnap cookie: Overall, this cookie would have been just fine had it not been for the sugar coating, which made it too sweet. While the texture was certainly better than storebought, it had the same underlying flavor of decent ginger snaps, which is not to say it was bad, but not particularly interesting beyond what you would expect. 3.0/5.0